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Mount Vernon

Commander in Chief of American forces in the Revolutionary War and the first President of the United States, George Washington called Mount Vernon home for more than 40 years. His beautiful northern Virginia estate is situated along the Potomac River, just 16 miles south of Washington, D.C.

Today, guests to Mount Vernon can visit the Mansion where George Washington lived with his wife, Martha. They can also tour more than a dozen original structures, Washington’s Tomb, and nearly 50 acres of his extensive plantation. The estate also includes a working blacksmith shop and the Pioneer Farm, a four-acre demonstration farm with a reconstructed slave cabin and a sixteen-sided treading barn.

A visit to Mount Vernon begins in the Ford Orientation Center, which features an inspiring action film, We Fight To Be Free. In the Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center, visitors discover 25 theaters and galleries, which tell the story of George Washington’s life with more than 500 original artifacts, 11 video presentations, and even an immersion 4-D theater experience. Just 3 miles down the road from the Mansion, George Washington’s Distillery & Gristmill have been reconstructed and are open seasonally.

“No estate in United America is more pleasantly situated than this.”

– George Washington, 1790

featured exhibit

Gardens & Groves: George Washington's Landscape at Mount Vernon

February 22, 2014-January 12, 2016

Explore George Washington’s design for the grounds of his estate and his achievements as a landscape designer in this featured exhibition. Gardens & Groves combines rarely-seen original documents, artworks, and books with period garden tools, gorgeous landscape photography, and a stunning scale model of the Mount Vernon estate. View the first president’s spyglass, watering can, and garden roller, in addition to reading his notes and instructions for Mount Vernon’s landscape.

At the center of Gardens & Groves is a fascinating 8’x 9’x 11′ model of Mount Vernon’s landscape as Washington last saw it in 1799. In addition to delighting viewers with its intricate craftsmanship, the model incorporates countless scenes from daily life – laundry drying in the laundry yard, a sailing ship on the Potomac, just-planted trees along the bowling green.

Gardens & Groves also tells the stories of the men and women, both hired and enslaved, who created and maintained George Washington’s gardens, and visitors will see some actual artifacts that they used, including a copper watering can and archaeologically-recovered flower pot fragments.

An interactive touch-table will demonstrate the evolution of the landscape at Mount Vernon over time. Visitors will be able to scroll through three topographical maps created by Mount Vernon’s preservation staff, reconstructing the appearance of the landscape when Washington inherited the property, during an early renovation, and as it finally appeared at the end of Washington’s life.